Sacrifice
by Gengario
Summary: As Samus fights her way through Zebes, she begins to think about what made her chose this lonely life – and why her brief encounter with an infant Metroid has brought out emotions she thought she had permanently suppressed. (A novelization of Super Metroid)


As Samus walked away from the Queen Metroid's corpse, she did feel a little proud of what she'd done. Only a little; that was as much pride as she ever let in, lest it get to her head. But right now she had good reason to feel proud. Thanks to her, the Metroids were no more. She was already more responsible than anyone else for completely wiping them out outside of SR388. And today, after a long and hard fight, she'd finally managed to exterminate every specimen of Metroid on their home planet. Samus knew that nobody else could have done this; that's why she was the very first person the Galactic Federation had turned to.

Mostly, though, anything else Samus might have felt was washed away by a flood of relief. And this was more than the typical relief that came with finishing a dangerous mission. The Metroids had been the source of many large-scale crises for years; now, finally, they were gone forever. The dark caves of SR388 lost all of the eeriness and tension Samus had come to associate with them. Now they were no more than a rocky path home.

That is, until she saw the egg.

Immediately, the caves became evil again. The large, round, slimy mass was almost certainly a Metroid egg. Samus's mission was less complete than she had assumed. When Samus found the egg, it was already wiggling around and cracking up. A few seconds later, it broke open and a tiny, newborn Metroid popped out.

_Just one left_, thought Samus. This had to be the last one; she'd seen the shells of other Metroid eggs, but they were all much closer to the Queen. Samus looked at her final target. This was the tiniest Metroid she'd ever seen. Fresh from the egg, it was almost totally transparent; the four fangs on its underside were barely developed. It posed no threat at all. As it floated in midair, Samus aimed her Arm Cannon at it. She would fire the moment it attacked.

The infant bobbed around in the air, as Metroids tend to do. Slowly, it flew closer to Samus. Samus continued aiming at it and waited for the lunge that never came. Instead, as soon as it got close enough, the infant Metroid… circled around her. Samus spun around, keeping her eyes and weapon focused on it. The Metroid flew in circle after circle, never coming any closer.

Among Samus's initial thoughts was: _is it blind?_ _(Or, since Metroids have no eyes, energy-blind?)_ She took a few steps backwards. The baby Metroid followed her. Then it began circling her again. No, it wasn't blind.

Now Samus was at a complete loss. This was almost surreal. What in the world was this thing doing?

"What do you think I am," Samus said, "your mother?"

{

_Why was the sky so full of black stuff? And why was everything covered in hot, orange stuff? Samus tried to remember the name for it. "Fire". But why was it everywhere? And where was everyone? It was all too much for a three-year-old girl to take in at once._

_There'd been so many loud noises, so many screams, and the ground had shaken so much. Now Samus just wanted to find her mom and dad so they could tell her what's going on and make everything normal again. Where were they? Samus looked around, but the only people she saw seemed to be sleeping. Why were they sleeping? Scared and confused, Samus began to cry._

"_Mama… where… where did you go, Mama? Papa… where are you?"_

}

Samus's confusion turned into unease. This shouldn't be happening. The Metroids were mindless, heartless killing machines. That's why she had killed every last one of them on this planet without hesitation or remorse. But this one…

Samus kept her Arm Cannon aimed at the infant as it slowly bobbed around near her. "Don't you get it?" she shouted. "I killed your mother and all of your siblings. I killed every one of your kind. If you want revenge, hurry up and attack me!" But, of course, it didn't.

This was probably the safest situation Samus had been in all day; despite this, she felt increasingly stressed and queasy. She wished this Metroid would hurry up and attack her so she could kill it. She needed kill it anyway, she knew… and yet, somehow, she couldn't bring herself to shoot. Every time she tried, memories of K-2L came rushing back to her, and suddenly all she could think about was how it felt to be the lone survivor of a genocide.

Samus decided to just continue walking back to her ship. Hopefully, the baby Metroid would come to its senses and attack her on the way there. Then she could kill it with a clear conscience.

It wasn't long before Samus hit an obstacle. The way forward was blocked by… debris. Apparently, it was the remnants of whatever the Queen Metroid had been eating recently. Samus considered her options: she could bomb it, she could blast it with missiles, or… Actually, she didn't need to do anything at all, because soon the debris collapsed right in front of her, clearing up the way forward. Confused, Samus looked around. Then she saw that the baby Metroid had latched onto the nasty pile of organs and exoskeletons. Whatever life was left in there, the baby had sucked it dry. It let go and followed Samus once more.

_Great_, Samus thought, _not only is it following me around, it's actually helping me. Now how am I supposed to kill it?_

}

The newborn Metroid followed Samus all the way to her ship. It wasn't a short trip. Not only did they have to climb through the tunnels all the way to SR388's sandy, desolate surface, but then Samus had to climb up and down a small cliff that stood between her and her ship. But now she was there, and so was the Metroid. Samus sighed and leaned against her wide, yellow gunship. She looked up at the endless stars. They invited her to come join them. Space itself was more of a "home" to Samus than anywhere else these days. But what would she do about the Metroid?

She couldn't leave it here; that would be disastrous. Not only would it make her whole mission a failure, but it would put the galaxy in danger – she came here to exterminate the Metroids for a good reason. That left two options: Samus had to either kill the Metroid or take it with her. For a minute, she tried to weigh each option. But soon Samus realized that it was useless to rationalize. One option had been mentally closed to her from the very beginning: she simply could not bring herself to kill this Metroid. She didn't know why; she'd killed all of the other Metroids without a problem. But not this one.

Whatever the reason, it was time to act. Samus jumped on her ship. Recognizing her, the hatch at its top opened automatically. Samus looked at the baby Metroid, who was bobbing around near her head. She made a beckoning gesture with her hand and then pointed to her ship's open hatch. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

}

Samus's gunship floated through space, unguided, as its pilot considered her options.

The Metroid was now in a small, yet sturdy, glass capsule. Samus felt bad about stuffing it there, but she couldn't just let a Metroid fly aimlessly around her ship. It could get itself hurt, or mess around with the controls by accident.

But what to do with it now? Directly telling the Galactic Federation about this Metroid felt like a very bad idea. To the bureaucrats and busybodies within, there was no difference between "All Metroids exterminated except one, which is in captivity" and "Mission failed". They had one box to check – the "All Metroids exterminated" box – and by God, they were going to check it. Samus wasn't sure what would happen if the authorities found out about what she did, but she knew she wouldn't like the results. At the very least, they would cut her payment, assuming they still gave her anything at all.

But she had to give this critter to someone. Someone who would know exactly what to do with it. Someone whom Samus could trust to keep everything under the Federation's radar…

Had the Federation been too hasty to order the extermination of _all_ the Metroids, without even leaving a sample to study? Samus had wondered this ever since the hatchling refused to attack her, forcing her to rethink everything she thought she knew about Metroids. Clearly, humanity's knowledge of Metroids was very incomplete. After all, the Chozo had supposedly created them to help the galaxy, yet she never learned how they were supposed to do this. Perhaps researching them would reveal something important.

Well, right or wrong, Samus had a sample now – so it'd be pointless to waste it. And Samus knew exactly who to give it to.

}

Samus had met the scientists at the Ceres Galactic Research Station several times in the past. She'd delivered specimens to them at their request, and they had helped make some adjustments to her suit at her request. She knew they'd be excited for the unique opportunity to study a living Metroid larva. Excited enough to keep it secret, at least temporarily.

Ceres itself was a huge, disk-shaped space station in the middle of an asteroid belt. Samus's gunship slowed down as it approached.

}

They're odd creatures, Metroids.

Nearly all known organisms must consume some form of organic matter in order to survive. Metroids consume no matter at all. If you compared an organism before and after predation by a Metroid, you'd find that it lost no mass. Yet the Metroid killed its prey somehow. What did it do? Do Metroids somehow suck pure energy out of their prey?

Back then, it was still a mystery – and the scientists at Ceres were more than excited about their opportunity to find out. The Federation didn't have to know just yet.

But if they were found out, Samus wasn't just going to let the scientists deal with the ensuing headache on their own. She planned to stay so that she could take full responsibility, if it came to that. Besides, Samus was curious to see what the research would reveal. So she rented out a room in Ceres and decided to stay for a while.

}

On Ceres, Samus got one more chance to interact directly with the baby Metroid. The scientists were intrigued by Samus's account of how the Metroid behaved upon hatching. The lead scientist, Dr. Holzer, set up an experiment that put Samus and the Metroid together in an empty room. Samus could see and hear the researchers behind a glass wall.

It had only been a day since Samus left SR388, so the infant Metroid hadn't grown much. Like all Metroids, it had three nuclei inside its round, translucent membrane, which had a greenish tint; it had four fangs near the mouth on its underside, two of which were larger than the other two between them. In fact, other than its size, it looked exactly like the creatures Samus had come to detest. So why did it almost seem… cute? As Samus watched it swerve back and forth in front of her, she couldn't help but smile a little. And Samus very rarely smiled.

Four horizontal tubes slid out of the wall. Each tube had a hole near the end, inside of which was a creature. They were Geemers: round, insect-like creatures with very spiky backs. They had somehow come to inhabit several planets – probably by laying eggs in the ships of travelers. These blue Geemers were clearly being held in place and were struggling to break free.

For the Metroid, it was feeding time. Immediately it latched onto the leftmost Geemer and began sucking.

"Tell it to stop," Dr. Holzer said through a speaker.

This was all part of the experiment, so Samus complied. "Stop it!" Samus said in a stern tone. Although she expected it would happen, it was still a surprise to see the Metroid stop draining the Geemer on her command. It floated back over to her and gave a faint screech.

Samus could see the scientists whispering to each other beyond the glass. Then Dr. Holzer's voice came through again: "Tell it to drain the Geemer on the far right."

She did; and once again, the Metroid complied. That settled it: this Metroid would do pretty much anything Samus asked of it. Now Dr. Holzer explained a theory that Samus had been entertaining since she found the infant.

"Well, Samus, it seems you were right. We were skeptical at first, but from what we can tell, this Metroid really does believe you to be its mother. We can only speculate, but perhaps Metroids know to follow the Queen Metroid's guidance from the moment they are born. Of course, when this one was born, there was no Queen Metroid; if what you told us is true, it sounds like you were the only life form of any significant power present. Since Metroids can only sense the energy in their surroundings, it's no stretch to conclude that when this one was born, it immediately imprinted you in its mind as its mother."

Samus stared at the tiny creature as it finished sucking the life out of the Geemer. It circled around her now, ignoring the other Geemers. A range of emotions passed through her and she didn't know what to make of any of them. How does one react when an orphan thinks you're their mother and cannot be convinced otherwise? What if you'd killed that orphan's parents yourself? Samus almost felt sick to her stomach. Perhaps the mission to SR388 had overstressed her. She just needed some time to rest – and to think.

}

Samus stayed at Ceres for a full week. She talked openly with the researchers and got to know many of them. Yet, when alone, she found that she spent much more time thinking about the baby Metroid than any of the actual humans aboard. It was odd, yes. But the people she talked to all knew where to draw the line; they didn't intend to get too personal. The Metroid, though it couldn't talk, had no line. It barged right into Samus's life without asking. The little circles it flew around her, the innocent screeches it made, the way it pressed against its containment tube every time she was near – it all made much more of an impact on Samus than any words spoken to her for many, many years.

Part of it was how easily Samus could see herself in the infant. Both were the lone survivors of an assault on their home planet. Both were taken away from their home planets at a very young age to be raised by another species. But this time, the species raising the survivor was the very one that had killed off its kin. Logically, Samus knew that she did the right thing when she exterminated the Metroids on SR388. The Space Pirates – and others – had used the powerful creatures for evil ends too much to tolerate. And anyway, despite this infant's behavior, Metroids weren't anything like humans in terms of intelligence. Allowing the Metroids to live would not be worth the havoc they would cause. Samus knew all of this – yet, somehow, she couldn't help but feel queasy every time she saw the infant Metroid and thought back to her mission on SR388.

On Samus's last day on Ceres, the researchers excitedly told Samus what they had found. It couldn't have been better news.

Metroids do, as suspected, seem to suck pure energy out of their prey. The research also proved that they could directly _give_ energy whenever they wished. But that wasn't the amazing part. Metroids, it turned out, are the most efficient distributors of energy ever discovered. If a Metroid sucked all of the energy out of one host, and then gave it to another, no energy at all would be lost in the transfer. In fact, it was possible that some energy was _gained_ in the transfer – but this was so incredible that the scientists had a hard time believing it without further tests. It would only make sense if Metroids could somehow drain a type of energy not yet known to humankind and convert it to a more observable form.

The news excited Samus for a number of reasons. There was no telling how great an impact these results could have on galactic civilization. But further research was necessary first. And that meant keeping the baby Metroid alive – and, hopefully, on Ceres. Samus knew now that she had done the right thing, and that it was not likely to be undone anytime soon.

The Ceres researchers concocted a plan. Obviously, they would have to reveal the existence of the last Metroid eventually. But according to their story, Samus _did_ kill all of the Metroids on SR388 – and brought a _dead_ sample back for study. From this, the researchers found their amazing results and, supposedly, cloned a living specimen in order to learn more. This way, both Samus and everyone on Ceres were in the clear, legally. The Federation might make some disapproving noises about cloning a Metroid, but given the circumstances, they were unlikely to be upset about it.

And so, after a week, Samus got back in her gunship and left Ceres. Everything seemed to be going well, and her little "specimen" seemed to be in good hands.

}

The last Metroid was in captivity. The galaxy was at peace.

Peace – what a strange concept. Samus had fought for it all her life, and suddenly, here it was, waltzing around like it had never left. Absolute peace was impossible, of course, and Samus knew that hers was a job that would never be finished. But the Metroids were gone and the Space Pirates were weaker than they'd ever been. Samus Aran, the now-famous galactic warrior, had almost singlehandedly created peace in the galaxy. For once, she didn't bother to hold the pride back.

Samus's ship sped through space toward the nearest post-office, where she planned to find a new bounty. In the meantime, Samus's thoughts wandered back to her "baby", the infant Metroid. Like it or not, there was no persuading this thing that Samus wasn't its mother. It might think this for the rest of its life. What was that going to be like – worrying about this thing for years to come?

Because, against her better judgment, Samus did worry about it. It was safe at Ceres now, but so much could go wrong. What would the Federation want with it? What would they do to it? Samus tried to remind herself that she shouldn't care, that Metroids aren't intelligent beings. Nonetheless, the picture that kept penetrating her thoughts was of the infant Metroid trapped and tortured in some laboratory, screeching for its mother…

There, out in space, Samus did a very rare thing: she made an irrational decision. She decided to protect the infant Metroid through any means necessary. She was the reason it was alive, the reason its relatives were dead, and the reason it was now being studied in a lab. She felt responsible for making sure it never passed into the wrong hands – no matter what. She knew it was an irrational decision. That didn't stop her from making it.

But Samus wasn't too worried. All she expected to do was check in on the Metroid every once in a while to make sure everything was going smoothly.

Then she got a distress signal. It was from the Ceres space colony.

}

Upon arriving at Ceres, Samus walked swiftly, but cautiously, through the port. She got to the stairs and jumped down each flight. She dare not use the elevator in an emergency – even if she wasn't sure what this emergency was. Her attempts to contact Ceres had failed. That was a very bad sign.

Samus got to the central office of the research station. She opened the door and looked in. The entire room was covered in blood and bodies. Among these decapitated bodies were Dr. Holzer and all of the other scientists she'd talked with over the past week. Now she could never talk to them again.

The first thing Samus felt was anger. But she had to hold it back. There was no time for anger, or shock, or mourning. Samus had to focus entirely on one thing right now: finding out what caused this. She looked all around the room, but nothing moved. More cautious than ever, Samus walked through the room and into a hallway.

She saw a few more bodies in the hallway. Not a single gun wound. Instead, every corpse looked like it had been clawed and sliced to death. Samus didn't have time to ponder what this meant. After surveying the hallway, she moved on to the main laboratory – where the infant Metroid was being held.

Or, rather, had been held. The glass tube that had contained the Metroid was now shattered and empty. More dead scientists lay around it. Once again, there was no other sign of life here. The humming of the machines felt so out of place when only a single visitor was around to hear it.

Samus would have felt panicked were it not for the intensity of her focus. She walked into another hallway. More dead bodies, but nothing else. She jogged to the small room at the other end. The floor was slightly lower in this room, which was surrounded by huge windows that looked out into space. The room was mostly empty – except, in its center, for the little glass cylinder that held an even littler Metroid.

Samus jumped to the ground and stared at the infant. The relief came and left so quickly it was as if she never felt it. Samus knew that nobody would steal such a valuable specimen and then just leave it alone in the middle of a room, unguarded. Someone was hiding nearby. Samus could practically feel their presence…

And then, above the Metroid, a pair of yellow eyes appeared. Samus knew exactly to whom the eyes belonged even before the body appeared around them.

{

_Samus was trying not to be terrified, but it wasn't working. Before her stood a creature unlike any she had ever seen. And it was huge. Some kind of reddish-purple beast with enormous wings and a pointed beak stared at her. Its yellow eyes had no pupils; frankly, those eyes would be terrifying even on a much smaller animal. Samus felt herself shivering._

_One of those flat-faced people with the crab-like claws was talking. The winged beast turned its head away from Samus to listen. Those clawed things had been all over the place today, and Samus had no idea why, or why there were so many loud noises. She had no idea where her parents were, either. Samus heard the clawed thing call the winged beast "Ridley". Then Samus remembered something Grandpa Bird had told her: his people looked different, but their hearts were like hers. Maybe Ridley's heart was like hers, too. Maybe he could help her find her parents._

"_A-are you Ridley…?" Samus stuttered, trying to stay brave. "I-I'm… Samus… I'm th-three years old…"_

_Ridley was staring at her now. It took Samus every ounce of courage she had to not run away. "You're not scary… I'm perfectly fine… E-even if you look different… W-we can still be friends…!"_

_Ridley looked at her curiously. Samus's request had taken him by surprise; it took him a moment to respond. "Hmm… such a cute little girl. Sorry, but…" His face was changing as he talked, growing more menacing by the moment. "I'm afraid that's impossible! Because…"_

_He grinned, showing off his many sharp teeth, and suddenly his face was worse than anything from Samus's worst nightmares._

"…_You're going to DIE!" he screamed, and Samus screamed with him, but without any of his joy. Ridley opened his mouth, and Samus felt a wave of heat hit her as something yellow and glowing grew in his throat…_

_Through her screams and terror, Samus heard her mother call out for her. Surprised, Samus stopped screaming just in time to see her mother running towards her. Then the fireball in Ridley's mouth flew at Samus. Her mother jumped in the way, and it hit her instead. That was the last thing Samus saw for a while, because then everything became obscured by black fog…_

}

Ridley's body had always had a red tint, but now it was completely red. That, Samus supposed, must be the result of having been rebuilt over and over after his various defeats at Samus's hands. Yet here he was _again_, unfettered by his losses. Samus almost admired his tenacity.

Of course, they began fighting immediately; Samus and Ridley were deep into the "shoot first, ask questions never" phase of their relationship. But this fight was different. Samus couldn't give her eternal rival everything she had; she had to make sure no stray shots accidentally hit the infant Metroid. She fired her power beam at him, and avoided using missiles. At first, she expected Ridley to use this advantage against her; soon, however, she realized that he was holding back too. He spent most of the fight airborne, holding the Metroid in his arm-like front claws, and he mostly attacked with his tail. Well, of course he was protecting the Metroid – he was the one trying to steal the damn thing. In any case, both fighters were at their most timid.

This time, however, Samus didn't need to kill Ridley – only to get something from him. When she had an opening, she carefully aimed and fired a missile at Ridley's front claws. The pain and force made him let go of the Metroid's capsule, which came tumbling toward the ground.

Ridley dived, and Samus leapt, to catch the capsule. The chase lasted about one second. For a fraction of that second, Samus thought she had won. But Ridley's dive accelerated, and he stretched his hind limbs faster than a human eye can perceive in order to grasp the capsule. Then he flew away. Right through the large glass window, which shattered when he flew into it.

For a brief moment, Samus felt the vacuum of space pulling her in; then a metal shutter automatically sealed the broken window. Now she was alone in the ship. The Metroid was lost. And then an alarm sounded. And from every angle, Samus heard a computerized voice.

"EMERGENCY. SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Ridley must have hacked into the central computer in the ship's maintenance room before she encountered him. He must have also given himself some time to leave before the self-destruct sequence started. His timing was perfect: it had begun the moment he left the ship. Now the floor shook, and loud noises – not just the screeching alarm – surrounded Samus.

She didn't have much time. Samus ran back the way she came. The colony was already falling apart, but things weren't too bad just yet; she had plenty of time to get back. As she backtracked, Samus saw the broken tube which had once contained the Metroid and had time to think about it. Of course the Space Pirates had seen Samus go directly from SR388 to Ceres. Of course this had aroused their suspicions and incited them to investigate, which of course led to their discovery of the last Metroid. And of course they then developed a plot to steal the Metroid as soon as Samus left Ceres for even a moment. Samus felt like an idiot for only now thinking of this. She felt guilty for allowing this to happen. But she had to hold back those feelings – and the many others competing for attention. She had a space station to escape from.

Samus got to the port, entered her ship, and blasted off just in time. By then, Ceres was really falling apart, and bits of the ceiling were falling to the ground. Once in space, Samus had a perfect view of Ceres as all of its detonators went off at once, blowing the space station up from the inside. She saw several flashes of light, and bits of metal flew every which way. Samus felt like a wound had opened in her heart. She knew so many of the people who lived and worked at Ceres. Now there was nothing left of them at all. Even their bodies were gone.

Yet even now, she _still_ had something more important to focus on. For her computers had detected another ship in the vicinity – and it was flying away. It could only be Ridley's ship. Samus made her own ship follow it.

Based on the trajectory of Ridley's ship, Samus tried to determine its destination. The answer was obvious – but so surprising that Samus tried again several times before she believed it. Yet there were no other possible destinations in that direction. Slowly, she accepted that she would once again have to visit the planet Zebes.

Several years ago, the most important and most dangerous Space Pirate base was located on Zebes. It had also been Samus's home once, long before that… but that was another story. Samus's original claim to fame was the mission wherein she – completely alone – had destroyed this base and killed the Space Pirate leader, Mother Brain. What was left there to go back to now?

To top the pain in her heart, the confusion in her head, and the sickness in her stomach, one more uneasy feeling came to Samus – a very bad case of déjà vu.


End file.
